Recipe For Happiness!#1 Release Harsh Self-Criticism

Ok, listen up peeps! Every now and then the universe projects upon the screen of the starry heavens in stark relief something it’s trying to get through to us—big time!

On this Virgo Full Moon the message couldn’t be any clearer, as the Virgo Moon stands archetypally alone in opposition to the Sun, Neptune, Chiron, and Mercury, all in the dreamy, spiritual, often escapist, sign of Pisces, and squares Saturn in Sagittarius…

Venus is now retrograde in Aries, the sign of the warrior. If you’ve been feeling like you want to get things done—you MUST get things done!—but found yourself sucked back into a dreamy torpor of fantastical escapism lately, don’t fret!

It’s one thing to coast lazily back into the primordial ooze of archetypal Pisces energy since the February 26 Pisces New Moon and March 4, when Venus began her backstroke through the heavens. It’s quite another to beat yourself up for it because you feel you should have been far more productive during this time…

Trust me, as one who carries Virgo energy in her archetypal makeup, I know the drill!

This Virgo Full Moon reminds us all that from chaos comes clarity. Pisces energy, represented by two fishes yoked together but attempting to swim in different directions, always tempts us to believe that life would be so much easier if only we could escape from it.

That escapism can take many different forms. From a fairly innocent glass of wine with dinner to watching a movie instead of tackling the work we brought home with us, to a full-blown alcohol or drug bender which renders us out to lunch for the next three days, we all choose our own escapes…

Either way, and into whatever direction our escapist tendencies flow, try not to succumb to Virgo’s darker more reactionary self-critical and perfectionist side which, when it strikes with the precision of a skilled surgeon, can leave us terribly wounded.

Rather, why not use this Virgo Full Moon energy to release negative self-criticism (and by extension criticism of those in the outside world), and create space for more self-compassion and love for those around us?

It pays to remember: what’s done is done, there’s no going back. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back on track now (NOW is all that counts!) because, after all, Virgo is the sign of daily routines, and every day is the first day of the rest of your life…

#2 Allow Your Creativity To Flow

Also, it pays to remember there’s a much higher use for Pisces escapist dreaminess, as so many who carry this energy know! After all, neither the Piscean nor Virgoan archetype exists in a vacuum. Rather, they’re tied together celestially, just as the two fishes are conjoined symbolically in the Pisces archetype alone.

Virgo holds the answer to Piscean dilemmas, and vice versa. They key on this Virgo Full Moon—as during all full moons—is to integrate these two energies so they may coexist peacefully in our psyches. If we allow them to make love, rather than war constantly, we just might have time for creative endeavors that ultimately enhance our spiritual enlightenment.

We can also better comprehend that—in order to ground, or make manifest or real, any dream—we need Virgo’s archetypal capability to sort through what’s fact and what’s fiction. Virgo’s ability to discern, clarify, analyze, and concretize allows us to morph our Piscean dreams into strong, clear, durable, earthy realities…

As long as we don’t cling to our old, self-critical ways! Instead, at this Virgo Full Moon and while Venus is retrograde, why not think about practical ways in which to incorporate more intuitively-inspired creativity into your life on a daily basis?

This might prove as simple as taking a walk in nature—a short one, if you lack time. Perhaps singing along with the radio while you drive, or dragging out your old paints, sheet music, or unfinished manuscript would do the trick.

Now’s an excellent time to prioritize revisiting and reincorporating creativity into your life in any way, shape, or form, but remember to leave your harshest criticisms behind and simply go with creative the flow!

#3 Jettison Saturn’s Self-Judgment

This Virgo Full Moon’s square to Saturn in Sagittarius provides another challenge for us to rise to and overcome…

In traditional astrology, Saturn is known as a malefic influence because he brings delay and restriction to our lives in ways that may make us feel stuck. In psychological astrology, however, Saturn is an archetypal energy (through its rulership of both Capricorn and Aquarius) that delays us for a reason.

When we feel stuck, the resulting frustration over our situation can elicit damaging self-judgmental reactions. In turn, these judgments become the quicksand into which we sink even further. The resulting catch-22 finds us mired in a swamp of our own making—and the more frustrated we feel, the more angry, insecure, and filled with self-doubt and loathing we become…

How do we avoid this?

My advice is to remember that all archetypes are divinely-inspired, and that their lower-side expression merely represents the internalized echoes of anything we were taught, told, and/or forced to believe when young (or in past life karma.)

These inner energies—merely echoes of external judgmental voices—are the ones we project outward into this time space dimension we call “reality.”

When we’re able to wrap our minds and hearts around this concept, we can begin to

better understand and KNOW how these archetypal energies are designed to help rather than hinder us.

After all, of what practical use is constant or consistent self-criticism? Sure, you can SAY you’re engaging in making yourself a better person through perfectionist or judgmental measures, but isn’t that simply an excuse tying you to an energy that’s more familiar (and therefore comforting) than conducive to future spiritual growth?

If we allow ourselves to disengage from the blame, shame, guilt, victim, martyr game, we may well discover that dreaming is good for the soul…

#4 Venus Retrograde Value Check

Venus thus encompasses both that which brings pleasure to our physical bodies and senses—taste, touch, smell, sight, and hearing—and Libra’s more social partnership orientation concerned with equality, fairness, and justice.

Basically, Venus is in charge of determining that which we value. If it pleases us, makes us feel good, tastes, smells, looks, and sounds nice—we’re in! If not, the hell with it, Venus says…

Likewise, those with whom we feel a sense of balance and harmony, and in whose presence we feel respected, loved, and equal, are those with whom we form our most intimate loving partnerships.

In general, the planet Venus prefers to be mellow. She’d much rather walk then run, stand than walk, sit than stand, and recline than sit, lol…

In the sign of Aries, however, she becomes more proactive. She’s charming rather than shy; more likely to go after what she wants and get it, rather than to pine away in the corner waiting for someone to come save her.

So, while direct, Venus in Aries would more easily pursue that which gives her pleasure, because it’s of higher value. Retrograde, however, she’s far more inclined to take it slower, to turn inward, and proactively re-assess that which she truly values—on every level.

If you find yourself reviewing and re-evaluating anything Venus-related between March 4 and April 15 (when Venus stations direct again)–including relationships, jobs, material possessions, or anything in your life that has value because it brings you pleasure–then you’re right where you should be…

What’s (Self) Love Got To Do With It?

Transiting Jupiter, currently in the Venus-ruled sign of Libra, doubly emphasizes the issue of partnership now as Venus retrogrades through Aries, Libra’s opposite sign.

Jupiter’s opposition to change-maker Uranus and square to evolutionary Pluto—who warns “evolve or die!–asks us to continue to explore more seriously our philosophical beliefs vis-a-vis partnership.

What about our approach to relationships must evolve now? How may we be more fully present–philosophically, emotionally, and spiritually—to trust in the fact that if we love ourselves first–truly, madly, and deeply–we’ll see that love reflected back to us through our partners?

While the Virgo Full Moon provides us the opportunity to rid ourselves of our overly self-critical and/or self-judgmental nature, Venus retrograde allows us to go deep and listen to the voice of our soul…

In this way, we can discover where the ego’s need for a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath, two-car garage home, or a diamond watch, or BMW sports car may be out of whack with what our soul truly needs to feel secure, loved, and valued.

If you find during this period that what you possess—or want to possess—does not (or will not) make you truly happy, now is the time to bring this into greater consciousness…

Moving inward to conduct a “soul check” as Venus backstrokes through the heavens will ultimately put us in closer touch with that which our soul truly values, rather than what our externally-oriented ego was told, taught, or forced to believe has value.

What’s working and what’s not working in terms of our relationships, careers, money, possessions, etc., is directly related to what we feel we deserve. And what we feel we deserve is directly related to how we value ourselves in a myriad number of ways–physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, etc.

It’s Venus’s backward motion right now that allows us to pause long enough to figure out where our own lack of self-love may be holding us back from receiving the love we feel we deserve.

The universe constantly and consistently tries to help us out, often by bringing into our lives people and circumstances that attempt to get us to recognize a particular metaphysical energetic pattern. If your level of self-value is low, this will be mirrored back to you now.

The purpose? To enable you to bring into consciousness the fact that loving oneself is necessary in order to project such self-love out into the world and attract it back.

Here’s Day’s song “Sit Still, Look Pretty”to inspire any matriarchally-oriented peeps out there to release preconceived notions about the sexes! It also gives us the ability to ponder an alternative way of thinking about relationships during this Venus in Aries Retrograde!